Get Over It!

It is amazing to me that small business owners are sometimes more savvy in the use of the internet than large companies who have unlimited budgets. It is also a phenomenon that many in government are not familiarizing themselves with useful tools at all. I wonder if they feel that they are already in a position of success and therefore have no need, or if they are still under the illusion that somehow their privacy will be compromised by engaging.

You see, the thing is about privacy... You don’t have any. It does not matter if you use social media or  not. You still don’t have any. You have not had any for a few years now; you just did not know it. I know, I know, I know...  I can feel your anxiety growing through the keyboard... But your discomfort does not change the facts. Have you gone to Google Earth and put your address in the search window? Do you realize that satellite is strong enough to read the mail off your table?

That is just one example. There are many more. Two years ago my 16 year old son had his friend in Edmonton hack my home computer near Calgary and read back to me my personal conversations on both Hotmail and Google, just to show me that it could be done. That was a teenager. Imagine if a professional hacker wanted your information? Would not being on Facebook somehow protect you? Unlikely...

Have you done a Google search on your name? You may not be on Facebook or Twitter but people may still be talking about you there. It is actually likely that they are. You just have no way of responding to it or defending yourself in the electronic marketplace if you are absent. Monitoring the chat is possible but you are not engaged. Silence is deadly to a brand and it is harmful to individuals as well. Social media is going on whether you are going with it or not.

I was horrified last week as I did some research on my favourite political party and discovered that most of the leaders can’t be found on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. Elections are being won these days by having intelligent campaign managers who use a combination of traditional platforms with social media elements. Those who do not engage – lose! But after the election is over ladies and gentlemen we need to wake up and smell the coffee. Do you want to stay in power? The fastest way to shift the heart of the nation would be to pull a Jack Layton and employ the efforts a bunch of college students and even staunchly committed Quebec could be temporarily duped into switching sides!

Companies that currently do 40 million dollars a year in sales with no social media presence are going to lose out to companies who are only doing $500 000 a year today. Why? Because online a good website and a great LinkedIn profile coupled with some active social media chatter redirects attention to a new brand. The end user on the computer can’t tell the difference between the two companies except by what is being said by the company itself and by the online chatter. How do I know? I create the marketing plans for several of those smaller companies, and we begin by collecting the data of where they are now and we examine where they want to be and that often means we are carefully analyzing the competition. If the largest competitor is not using social media or not using it correctly the conquest is easy. Time and engagement are the only factors we need to add to the equation.  The amusing part to me is that we would work just as happily for a large company but often they think they have it covered because they have a marketing department (that is older than 2 years old) so they don’t examine new methods. They are doing good, why change anything?

The world is changing. Five years ago Facebook was nothing. Today it is huge. Groupon had a rise and a fall along with hundreds of other daily deal companies. The Yellow Pages which were so powerful a force are wiped off the map. It is pretty arrogant to think that we don’t have to change.

We need to get over it. There is no privacy. It is an equal playing field again due to the internet. If you are ahead in this game, you will only stay ahead if you adapt quickly to changing methods.

The only thing that will endear you to this new market is relationship. Relationship with the masses can only be done through social media. The people are waiting to engage with the leaders of industry, the leaders of government, and the leaders of thought. Those who engage, will be those who win. You get to choose if that is going to be you, or your competition. Choose wisely...

So get over it, and get on with it.

Always Loyal2U

Kerry George


Just a little side note. This is my favorite scene from Indiana Jones The Last Crusade about making a bad choice. Don't let this happen to you.

Choose well...

Watch Video Clip

What Is Your Value?

I once heard Rick Ciaramitaro say that the twin towers of hell were competition and comparison. Yet I am continually comparing and being compared to. Aren’t you? And the competition is fierce in business. But I think he meant this more personally. At least I hope he did because I rather enjoy the competition in business...

Like when you as a woman see another woman and compare yourself to her. She looks better than you do, she is more confident than you are or she is thinner. Many women do that all the time and men do it too. I had two guys together for a coffee last week and for a few minutes I thought I was going to be in the middle of a dogfight as they sized each other up and down and took a few swipes at each other. Wild times at Starbucks!

People are always comparing to each other and usually I don’t let it bother me but I was thinking about the way that we value ourselves and it caught my interest. I noticed something.

People seem to allow another’s comparison to brand a value or a lack of value on them as a person. For instance if I tell you that I charge $50 an hour for a service and then I wait to see if you raise your eyebrows, or if you tell me that you could get it somewhere cheaper, how will I respond to that? Will I devalue myself by wimping away and lowering my price? The comparison of others use to bother me and I use to respond to it. But more and more, I am seriously getting over it... and I think that you should too.

What are you worth?  What is your service worth?

Is your offering unique?

If it is not unique then others can compare themselves to you. You have lots of competition.

However, if you think of ways to be very unique and then rebrand yourself, you can decide what you are going to leave on the table for your competition to have. You can decide what is simply not worth your time and you can let someone else have it. They will get so busy eating the crumbs you left behind you can get way ahead of them before they even know what happened. And then you have value. Real value.

When I started in business only a year ago, I was uncomfortable asking for $20/hour, but I am a fast learner and poverty is a good teacher. I quickly learned how to produce at $50/hour and by late spring I was charging $100/hour and I was pretty confident about it. Then I realized that I was worth much more than that. I had identified a unique offering and I was producing above what I was promising. So when a potential client asked me what I charged. I told him $200/hour and held his gaze. He exclaimed, “That is more than my engineers!” I responded, “Yes. It is...” and I did not look away.

The thing is though; I am worth way more than that.

And so are you!

So don’t set your value based on what your competitors are charging or based on somebody’s comparison of you. Do what you do with excellence. Do it with pizzazz. Think of ways of doing it that nobody else is doing it. Then multiply those efforts through staff and create a market niche that is so unique that nobody can compare with you.  When the group of “THEY” tell you that they can get it cheaper at XYZ Company, look them in the eye and tell them squarely, “Have fun with that then. When it doesn’t give you results, I will still be here and my price may have gone up, but it definitely isn’t going to be any less than it is right now.” And let them go.

It feels good to let a few go.

Don’t let negative people devalue you. Don’t take on high maintenance clients because you are afraid of losing money. Don’t work for immoral idiots, or law-breakers, or people who promise you time and help but they never deliver. You are worth more than that.

Spend your time looking after the ones who are loyal2U. Give your attention to the ones who pay you for your attention. Create positive experiences with positive people and enjoy the journey.

Seriously, what is your value?

Always loyalU,

Kerry George